DUBAI 2012 Draw and Matches live!

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Scores/Tournament-Draws.aspx

I always liked Dubai as a tournament. Lots of money at stake and to me it;s the equivalent of a TMS.

The draw is interesting:

It's Djoko / MUrray on the same half (looking forward to a revenge there.

And It's Federer v Llodra first round. I am sure, you can bet on this that the are going to make Llodra play early Monday...Tuesday at the latest to give Federer max chance of winning that one.

The top draw is certainly the toughest with Berdych and Davydenko on top of Nole and Andy.

Just realised that Federer has Delpo again....but I am sure Delpo will start to feel it in the legs.

Check out the wild card in postion 20. Could there be a Djokovic-Djokovic final?

NIce of Nole to force the organisers to take his brother on board.

Federer will be on a cruzade versus France. Llodra, Mahut, Gasquet , Adrian Mannarino and Tsonga.

What are the chances that all 5 French players are on teh same side? 1/32? If you consider Baghy French (French school for sure), that makes it 1/64!!

Cooo, Tenez, you look excited

Provided Davy is fit to play, look forward to seeing him against Murray

I would be interested in the murray v. Djoko semi, I really think this is the matchup that will dominate the next 12-18 months on the tour. I think Murray is closer than a lot of people think. Lets see what happens.

I think Dubai is pretty much an unofficial Masters with the money and field they attract and the quality of the facilities, would concur with Tenez on that one.

NITB - for this tournament, you could change your name to 'markoisthebest'

If Boggo could get all those wild cards for Wimbledon (and colossaly waste them), what's a meagre Dubai WC for Djokovic The Second

JuliusHMarx wrote:NITB - for this tournament, you could change your name to 'markoisthebest'

Not in a million years.....

Dolgo Delpo in he first round sounds promising!

Apparently Baggy feels fearless in Dubai

http://www.tennis.com/articles/templates/news.aspx?articleid=16633&zoneid=25

Why does del boy always get such murderous draws, Dolgo is a tough first rounder. He has to get himself into the top 8.

Youzhny Gasquet in the first round, as well, wow, some mouth-watering stuff, can't wait!!!!

Yes, As said, Dubai has very often been better than some TMS.

socal1976 wrote:I would be interested in the murray v. Djoko semi, I really think this is the matchup that will dominate the next 12-18 months on the tour. I think Murray is closer than a lot of people think. Lets see what happens.

I think Dubai is pretty much an unofficial Masters with the money and field they attract and the quality of the facilities, would concur with Tenez on that one.

Ha ha! Why am I never surprised when Djokovic supporters talk up Murrays chances? They are just hoping a certain two other players might just disappear...

hawkeye wrote:

socal1976 wrote:I would be interested in the murray v. Djoko semi, I really think this is the matchup that will dominate the next 12-18 months on the tour. I think Murray is closer than a lot of people think. Lets see what happens.

I think Dubai is pretty much an unofficial Masters with the money and field they attract and the quality of the facilities, would concur with Tenez on that one.

Ha ha! Why am I never surprised when Djokovic supporters talk up Murrays chances? They are just hoping a certain two other players might just disappear...

Nadal's already disappeared. I wonder which injury's preventing him from playing for the entire month of February...

noleisthebest

You have just proved my point.

Nadal hasn't "disappeared" as I'm sure you will be disapointed to know. He has just learned to manage his schedule a little better.

hawkeye wrote: ....He has just learned to manage his schedule a little better.

Should he now learn to play tennis without killing himself?

Glad of this thread otherwise I would probably have missed FEderer-Llodra and Dolgopolov - Del Potro as I might have tuned in to the tournament mid week.

Dubai is on a par with some of the lower masters 1000s like Shanghai and Paris.

Tenez

The effort is there with Federer also. He is fast and extremely fit. He once joked on an after match interview that his training sessions involved sitting next to Mirka on the couch fliking the remote... I for one don't believe that for a second. Do you?

I quite like him for saying it though...

Tenez wrote:

hawkeye wrote: ....He has just learned to manage his schedule a little better.

Should he now learn to play tennis without killing himself?

I usually don't commend Tenez on his Nadal criticisms, but this is a pretty funny and succinct post. Tenez has again demonstrated textbook and visionary use of the art of the internet wum.

noleisthebest wrote:Youzhny Gasquet in the first round, as well, wow, some mouth-watering stuff, can't wait!!!!

Damn I have to watch that probably 2 of 5 favorite players to watch on tour. Now if ferocious fernando gonzalez could have a second spring in his tour career that would really be great. Gasquet is my second favorite after Novak on the current tour. Talk about two beautiful backhands on display in this match. Maybe the one hander isn't dead with these two guys and their one handers getting together on court.

Dubai always has a stellar field for a ATP500. Some Masters like Monte Carlo (but lot to strength of old history of the tournament ), Shanghai often have a weaker field. ATP should consider some changes, a masters on grass ( Halle likely ) is a highly desirable.

Delpotro is in his 3rd consecutive week of play. I'm expecting him to play on Wed, but still he could be tired and his first round isn't any easy with Dolgo. I don't expect him to get past Tsonga if they both meet in qtrs.

Djo path looks clean up to semis. Tipsy maybe a seeding match but he isn't going to trouble Djo ( unless Djo plays like he did in WTF 2011 ).

Murray may look to have a tough one with Davy a potential 2nd round. But Davy retired in Marseilles against Delpotro, was struggling with some injury against Fed too in Rotterdam. Murray should get past him. Berdy can be tough one for Murray in qtrs. A very interesting Semis if it goes up to Djo-Murray.

Fed Llodra can be exciting, I always enjoy a true S&V player. I just wished Llodra had a better backhand. Don't know why almost all lefties with SHBH have very weak back hand wings ( Feli Lopez, Horatio Zabo ). Good soft hands, but will always be a handicap. If it gets to tsonga-Fed semis, it will be very interesting.

Good tennis lined up all in all. May the best man win.

Marko Djoko is such a waste of a WC he's done next to nothing to be given one, can only imagine Nole is supporting the Dubai government in their exploitation of cheap foreign workers. I'm looking forward to Del Potro/Dolgo for obvious reasons Baghdatis/Tsonga should be promising, Stebe is a good German player who's risen up the rankings, harsh that he draws Nole 1st round..

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Marko Djoko is such a waste of a WC he's done next to nothing to be given one, can only imagine Nole is supporting the Dubai government in their exploitation of cheap foreign workers. I'm looking forward to Del Potro/Dolgo for obvious reasons Baghdatis/Tsonga should be promising, Stebe is a good German player who's risen up the rankings, harsh that he draws Nole 1st round..

JM, that is a pretty funny indictment of Nole, he is supporting the Dubai government in exploitation of cheap foreign workers. You got to be kidding right? Now I have heard it all Jahu believes Novak is somehow culpable for the slaughter of yugoslav civil war and now Novak is helping to exploit cheap foreign workers. So since Fed has played Dubai more times than Novak and lives in Dubai he must be the chief exploiter of foreign labor. And wait doesn't he live in Dubai to avoid paying taxing. Uh oh, tax dodge as well! JM too much of the nice argentinian vino for you today my friend.

Interesting video. I call it "The View From the Top"

http://www.dubaidutyfreetennischampionships.com/Tennis/Media/Videos/2012/02/Dubai/Dubai-2012-Burj-Al-Arab-Anniversary.aspx

Federer v Agassi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1Pj1KkO6Qs

Don't chase the ball if your lobed at the net...

And wait doesn't he live in Dubai to avoid paying taxing.

He lives in Bottmingen, Switzerland. Oh and he never asked for his friends/family to get a free wildcard when they didn't deserve it.

noleisthebest wrote:Interesting video. I call it "The View From the Top"

http://www.dubaidutyfreetennischampionships.com/Tennis/Media/Videos/2012/02/Dubai/Dubai-2012-Burj-Al-Arab-Anniversary.aspx

Well after watching that, safe to say Federer respects Nole more now cause he's not allowing Nadal to dominate, this is probably equally why he doesn't respect Murray yet.

PM for you Josiah

Djokovic & Golubev starting, go Marko, make your brother proud

Marko 's career prize money $738, bless him !

Marko breaks in the first game!

And holds serve!

NIce game from MDj. You can see he's not that bad but needs to get over the nerves.

Golubev breaks back....

and takes the first set 6:3....MDj's relaxed a bit, which is good.

Went to have a ook for a CD on Amazon, and what do I find out back at the match.....Golubev serving for the match....

And that's it.....good mover, reasonable groundstrokes....serving like he didn't have breakfast...and...very nervous.

Big bro didn't appear happy in the stands, well he's done his best...

Back to challengers Marko, you've got to graft it a bit still,

Next Fish vs Beck

noleisthebest wrote:And that's it.....good mover, reasonable groundstrokes....serving like he didn't have breakfast...and...very nervous.

Big bro didn't appear happy in the stands, well he's done his best...

Back to challengers Marko, you've got to graft it a bit still,

Poor Marko - those are very big shoes to fill!! Still, he must have more than quadrupled his career earnings to date with this foray into the big time

time please wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:And that's it.....good mover, reasonable groundstrokes....serving like he didn't have breakfast...and...very nervous.

Big bro didn't appear happy in the stands, well he's done his best...

Back to challengers Marko, you've got to graft it a bit still,

Poor Marko - those are very big shoes to fill!! Still, he must have more than quadrupled his career earnings to date with this foray into the big time

Yes, he can take Nole out for a drink....he owes him one !

Nice for Marko to play on the big stage, but to me it feels like a bit of a waste of a wild card. There are only 32 places in the draw, and surely there would have been much better players to fill that spot!

Fish batters Beck in 58 mins. 6:1 6:1

Fish definitely had Beck floundering!

Countdown to Novak

Nole time ...

I love it when he wears his champion's haircut (very short cut),the message it carries is : beware!

Nole a bit rusty. Just a tiny, tiny bit. Wins 1st set 6:4

Some wonderful play even though he doesn't look championship sharp atm. Good for Stebe to only lose serve once in 1st. About to be broken for 2nd time in 2nd set!

In the end, routine win for No1e